NEALE WILKE CLAPP

1933 - 2015

Clapp, Neale Wilke Of Essex, Connecticut, an organization development consultant and social scientist, died on March 7, 2015 in Middletown, CT. Mr. Clapp's work as an organizational consultant spanned the second half of the 20th century, and he was known for his ability to examine the complex human impulses that drive organizational behavior. He is remembered for his oft-quoted observation "Nothing ventured, something lost." His published work included influential contributions toward the widespread adoption of first-generation industrial robots in the workplace during the 1970s. Born in East Orange, New Jersey in 1933 to Richard Holmes Clapp and Ruth Wilke Clapp, Neale Wilke Clapp was the second of four children. He attended Clifford J. Scott High School in East Orange and Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH where he was class of 1955 and majored in English. Mr. Clapp served in the U.S. Army from 1955-57, and later taught at New York University. In 1959, he co-founded a pioneering community-based probation program in Newark called Essexfields, which achieved success in reducing recidivism among young offenders using a model that is replicated today. Mr. Clapp began his private consulting career at Block Petrella Associates in Plainfield, New Jersey. In 1980, he established his private consulting practice. For many years, he was Dean of Team Building and Process Consultation for the National Training Laboratory in Bethel, Maine and he was a member of the original faculty of the Master of Science in Organizational Development program at Pepperdine University. In addition to his professional accomplishments, he was an athlete; he loved tennis and cycling. He taught his daughters to keep their eye on the ball, and took them on summertime cycling adventures around New England. When his health required that he give up tennis, he embraced, even if he did not fully conquer, the challenges of golf, a sport at which he persisted for the rest of his life. Neale was an expert naturalist. He loved birds, trees and flowers and was an accomplished gardener, creating wildflower-filled gardens anywhere he lived. The ladyslippers, coreopsis moonbeams and bleeding hearts he planted in New Jersey and Connecticut will bloom for many years in the gardens he cultivated. He taught his children to notice phlox, trillium and jack-in-the-pulpit wherever they went. He could talk at length about any bird that came to a feeder, or about the morphology of trees. He loved classical orchestral and instrumental chamber music, and he and his wife Marcia, spent many memorable evenings at Carnegie Hall. As a descendant of the Clapp family that came from England on the ship Mary and John in 1630 to found the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, Neale was a life-long student of American history. He took an active scholarly interest in the pre-Revolutionary War colonial period, and was an equally avid family historian. He was deeply devoted to the American principles of equality and civil rights. An active anti-racist and strong supporter of civil rights, he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma in 1965, and remained deeply committed to the cause of racial justice for the rest of his life. He was a proud atheist and a passionate supporter of the separation of church and state. In 1958 he married Sandra Nachowitz, with whom he had two daughters. Following their divorce, he married Carolyn O'Koon, the mother of his youngest daughter. The couple later divorced and he married Marcia Hess. The couple spent over three decades together before Mrs. Clapp predeceased him in 2005. Neale is survived by his daughters: Jocelyn Ozolins and husband Mari Ozolins of Orient, NY, Robin Clapp and husband Hans Foght, of Malmo, Sweden and Elizabeth O'Connor and husband Gerard of Jamaica Plain, MA and his five grandchildren. He is also survived by his significant other, Barbara Levin, his sister Susie Batting and brother Bill Clapp, both of New Jersey. He is remembered by his many close professional and personal friends. The burial and memorial service will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Neale W. Clapp Memorial Fund, Eastern Bank, 63 Franklin Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02110 will be appreciated. Donations to the Fund will be used toward gifts in Mr. Clapp's name to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Arnold Arboretum.